A former soldier’s obsession with a Harrogate woman led to an unrelenting, 18-month harassment campaign in which he turned up at her home with weapons including a lump hammer, a Samurai sword and a bow-and-arrow.

Michael Peter Sutcliffe, 39, made the woman’s life a misery by repeatedly appearing at her home and shouting dire threats including that he would “kill someone”, York Crown Court heard.

Sutcliffe, a cannabis-smoking alcoholic who once served in Iraq, became “obsessed” with the woman who became increasingly fearful of him, said prosecutor Eugene Cross.

On one occasion, he went to her home carrying a lump hammer and threatened to strike her on the head with it.

Throughout that month, Sutcliffe kept turning up at the victim’s home with a variety of weapons including a sword and a bow-and-arrow.

The incidents were captured on her Ring Doorbell which showed Sutcliffe shouting at her and, in one instance, baring his buttocks at the camera.

On another occasion, he appeared at her window, demanded to speak to her and ripped out her Ring Doorbell camera, damaging it “beyond repair”.

The following month, he returned with a “Samurai-style” sword. When the terrified victim asked him why he had the weapon, Sutcliffe “took the sword out of its sheath and began stabbing the floor with it”.

He kept returning to her address throughout that month, leaving her notes and trying to speak to her. When she refused, he kicked her door.

Moved home

He was ultimately arrested and brought in for questioning, telling officers that the sword was a replica which he kept because he was a “Knights Templar fan”.

He said he had acted “a bit daft” towards the victim when he had been drinking.

Prosecuting barrister Mr Cross said the woman ended up moving out of her home to try to avoid Sutcliffe.

However, about a year later, when she was removing the last of her belongings from her old home, going back and forth to her car, Sutcliffe turned up and started shouting at her about the report she had made to police about him.

He then let loose his dog which ran towards, and jumped up at, the victim. When she told him to retrieve his dog, he ignored her, so she went back inside as Sutcliffe continued to shout and swear at her outside her door.

“At one point, (Sutcliffe) shouted, ‘I’ll kill someone, yeah,’” said Mr Cross.

Racial slur

The following day, Sutcliffe and another drunken man went into the Morrisons store on King Edward’s Drive, Bilton, and headed straight for the alcohol fridge.

He picked up two large bottles of Frosty Jack’s cider, passed one to the other man and was about to leave the store without paying when he was challenged by a staff member.

The other man left his cider bottle on the counter, but belligerent Sutcliffe refused to hand his over and went to leave the store.

When a staff member told him he had to pay or hand back the bottle, Sutcliffe put his hand in his pocket as it he was rummaging around for some kind of weapon, leaving staff so afraid that they had to let him leave the store with the stolen cider.

Brazen Sutcliffe and the other man then sat outside the store drinking from the cider bottles and even went back inside the shop asking for packets of cigarettes, promising to “pay later”.

Staff asked them to leave the area, but the two “intoxicated” men remained sitting on a wall outside the store as customers went in and out of the shop.

As staff called police, Sutcliffe aimed a racial slur at the store manager and told them he had “been to war and fought for our country”.

Admits harassment

Sutcliffe, of Woodfield Road, Harrogate, was charged with a litany of offences including witness intimidation and putting a person in fear of violence by harassment in relation to the named woman.

He denied witness intimidation but admitted the harassment charge. The prosecution accepted these pleas and the former charge was allowed to lie on file.

He was also charged with robbery and racially aggravated disorderly behaviour in relation to the incident at Morrisons. He admitted the latter but denied robbery, offering a guilty plea to theft instead.

This was accepted with some hesitation by the Crown, given that Sutcliffe appeared to have been rummaging around in his pocket for what staff feared might be a knife, though no such weapon was produced.

‘My life has been ruined’

He appeared for sentence via video link today (November 26) when the prosecution read out a statement from the harassment victim who said that Sutcliffe’s relentless behaviour had zapped her confidence and left her feeling constantly anxious and extremely depressed.

“My life has been ruined by this man,” she added.

Sutcliffe had nine previous convictions for 14 offences including wounding, battery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and attacking emergency workers.

The new offences were in breach of a community order he received in February for assaulting an emergency worker and a conditional discharge imposed in June for cannabis possession.

Defence barrister Frances Pencheon said Sutcliffe’s drink problem was linked to his post-traumatic stress disorder from which he suffered during and after leaving the army.

He enlisted in the military at 19 years of age and served as an infantryman for five years, including active service in Iraq.

“His army (career) was cut short because he was diagnosed with PTSD and he was discharged on medical grounds,” added Ms Pencheon.

“He has never fully adjusted to being back in civilian life.”

Judge Simon Hickey said the harassment victim had been caused “very serious distress”.

He said that Sutcliffe’s offences both against her and Morrisons’ staff meant that an immediate jail sentence was the only option.

Sutcliffe was jailed for two-and-a-half years but was told he would serve less than half of that behind bars before being released on prison licence.